In William
Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the action of the entire play unfolds over
the course of a single day. But what happened on the island in the
twelve years leading up to that day? Why does the magician Prospero keep
his daughter Miranda ignorant of her history? Why does he take the
supposedly monstrous Caliban under his wing?

Miranda is a lonely
child. For as long as she can remember, she and her father have lived
in isolation in the abandoned Moorish palace. There are chickens and
goats, and a terrible wailing spirit trapped in a pine tree, but the
elusive wild boy who spies on her from the crumbling walls and leaves
gifts on their doorstep is the isle’s only other human inhabitant. There
are other memories, too: vague, dream-like memories of another time and
another place. There are questions that Miranda dare not ask her stern
and controlling father, who guards his secrets with zealous care: Who am
I? Where did I come from? The wild boy Caliban is a lonely child, too;
an orphan left to fend for himself at an early age, all language lost to
him. When Caliban is summoned and bound into captivity by Miranda’s
father as part of a grand experiment, he rages against his confinement;
and yet he hungers for kindness and love. This darkly re-imagined vision
of Shakespeare’s beloved tale is told in their voices and is rife with
issues of power and control, innocence and sexuality. Lovers of the
fantastic, the classic, and beautiful writing will fall in love with
Carey’s imaginative retelling.

New Jacqueline Carey! And a Tempest retelling at that! I cannot wait, I absolutely love Carey's writing especially in her Kushiel series so this should be a positive feast. Out on February 14 2017 it will be a nice Valentine present to myself!